by Texas Homesteader ~
I try to eat or preserve every single vegetable that comes from our garden. I love to over plant tomatoes so we have plenty for eating fresh & also for preserving for later. But when you’ve eaten all you can fresh what do you do?
I’m not sure about you but around our house we make BLENDER SALSA!
Although RancherMan doesn’t care to eat many tomatoes sliced raw (I know, I don’t understand it either) we both love salsa – the spicier the better. Y’all are NOT gonna believe how easy this is.
Tomatoes From Freezer
Remember how I told you earlier that I preserve garden tomatoes by washing, coring, halving and freezing all of our ripe tomatoes we are not going to eat fresh? Well here’s where those tomatoes really shine through!
First I take those frozen halves out of the freezer and allow them to thaw for just a bit – I don’t like my salsa too watery so I’ll pour out some of the juice that’s extracted at thawing.
You can save this juice to add to other dishes you might cook that would benefit from a little tomato flavor. I like to freeze it into ice cubes & drop it into my soups or rice as they’re cooking. Or even use these cubes when steaming veggies.
Blending Veggies Into Salsa
Anyway, now I dump the semi-frozen tomatoes into my blender, seeds, skins and all. I give it a whirr until it’s smooth. (You can use canned tomatoes if your garden isn’t producing yet.) Then I’ll add some onion, bell pepper, garlic and jalapeno & blend again until smooth.
Feel free to use the quantities that suite your palate. We use bell pepper lightly, moderate onion & heavy jalapeno & garlic.
Then I’ll add a few tablespoons of my dry mix salsa spices (recipe below) and blend one more time.
Adding Texture
RancherMan and I like a little more texture in our salsa. So I’ll pour the blended mixture into a bowl and stir in some finely chopped jalapenos, onions & bell pepper. Perhaps even a chopped tomato if I want extra chunkiness.
I enjoy fresh cilantro in my salsa so if we have any it’s always added at the end as well. A short stay in the fridge to marry all the flavors and now all that’s left to do is bring out the chips and enjoy!
Making my own salsa from garden produce not only reduces our grocery budget but it keeps salsa containers out of the landfill.
And it’s healthier for us since it comes right from our organic garden. My blender salsa is stored in a canning jar in the fridge, although to be honest we eat it up pretty quickly so it doesn’t last long enough for me to say how long it will store!
Here’s the recipe I use for my blender salsa spices.
Dry Salsa Mix:
I keep this mix in a glass jar with the ingredients & measurements to use noted right on the jar so when I run out making up a new batch is a snap! #TexasHomesteader
Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup Crushed Dried Red Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Dried Parsley Flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon Cumin optional
- 3 Tablespoons Dried Cilantro Flakes
- 1/2 Cup Dried Minced Onion
- 2 Tablespoons Dried Minced Garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Non-Iodized salt
- 1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
Instructions
-
Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a repurposed jar, seal and label.
-
Use and 3-4 tablespoons of the mix per quart of tomatoes.
~TxH~
Preserving The Harvest Posts
- Making Tomato Sauce
- Canning Fresh Asparagus
- Water-Bath Canning Pears In Light Syrup
- Canning Garden Corn
- Easier Dill Pickles
- One Quart At A Time Refrigerator Pickles
- Keeping Garlic
- Preserving The Harvest: Oregano
- Accumulating Okra When Your Harvest Is Small
…And Much MORE!
See All Preserving The Harvest Posts
Dehydrating Posts
- Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Fresh Carrots
- Dehydrating Fresh Pumpkin For Easy Storage
- Dehydrating Spinach To Enjoy All Year Long
- Using A Dehydrator To Preserve Fresh Onions
- Dehydrating & Storing Cabbage
- Bell Pepper Dehydration
- Using A Solar Oven To Dehydrate Garden Produce
- How To Make Dehydrated Blueberry Powder
- Dehydrating Plums
See All Our Dehydrating Posts
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Looks and sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner link up and don’t forget to leave a comment at the party – Next week’s features that also leave a comment get pinned and tweeted!
I love a good salsa recipe!! Yum! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday – Pinned!
Awesome Elaine, thanks for the pin! ~TxH~
I have been looking for a good salsa recipe. Can’t wait to try using this yummy seasoning.
We really like it Chell, give it a try. đŸ™‚ ~TxH~
This will be a great recipe for my new blender, yay!! Stopping by from #LetsGetReal party to stop by and say hi!!
Oh yeah Debra – give it a whirl. (HA! Whirl… See what I did there?? đŸ˜‰ ~TxH~
And all this time I have been chopping by hand!
LOL – Right Emma??!! I always opt for the laz… I mean EFFICIENT way in the kitchen. LOL ~TxH~
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This looks fresh and easy. I’m sure it tastes much better than the stuff in the jar. Thanks for the post!
I like to provide as much for my family myself rather than purchasing. This is for health reasons, environmental reasons and also financial reasons. Plus I really feel good knowing I played such an integral part of the food my family eats. Oh yeah, and you’re right – it’s DELICIOUS! đŸ˜‰ ~TxH~
Wow this sounds amazing & I love that it’s as easy as tossing in the blender! My kind of recipe đŸ˜‰
Easy preparations in the kitchen are always a winner here! LOL ~TxH~
Great recipe – love fresh salsa! I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
Kathy
Great use for frozen tomatoes! Thanks for sharing at Simple Lives Thursday.
We love homemade salsa but we aren’t much for the hot stuff! This is a great idea, we have never thought to freeze tomatoes for salsa! Thanks for the great idea!!
Give it a try – we love salsa and this is an easy way to make sure we always have some on hand. đŸ™‚ ~TxH~
Sounds like the easist salsa ever. Thanks for linking at The Yuck Stops Here.
Thank you for your Fall Back Friday recipes. I haven’t had a chance to go back through your archives yet and I love eating much more naturally. My only regret is that I don’t have space here for a bigger vegie garden. Reading all your recipes, drying, canning tips makes me long for a veggie garden again. However, so many of the things you do I can do with produce bought at Farmers Markets.
This Salsa recipe sounds divine and with the warmer weather on the way here in Australia, I plan to try this for our B.B.Q’s.
Oh yes Jodi – it’s nice to have a big productive garden but much food preservation can be done with produce from farmer’s markets or purchased on sale at the store when they’re in season & cheaper. Let me know how you like the salsa. ~TxH~
Sounds really nice, thanks for sharing
I never ever get tired of salsa. I absolutely love it. This sounds great. Thank you for linking at the In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party. Hope to see you again next week.
Me too Cynthia, and this is a pretty low-waste way to enjoy it too. Gotta love it! ~TxH~
I love your receipe – so do all my cousins! I made this up and gave one pint jars to several cousins last Christmas (along with a printout of the blog article). They loved the salsa and blog article so much this is what they want for Christmas 2014. đŸ™‚
Cynthia, what an incredibly sweet thing to hear – THANK YOU!!! I know we really love this mix, so glad to hear it’s a hit with your family as well. ~TxH~
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The season is coming to an end and I have made two batches of blender made Salsa and was unhappy with the lack of heat in my recipe. I was thinking the fresh tomatoes had too much core which makes it watery, I used two biggish Jalapenos but no heat!! I like your idea of adding some chopped fresh pepper and onion when served. I am going to make a new batch today with the addition of the salsa spice mix you suggested.
Wish me luck.
Judi – I like to put my fresh tomatoes in a colander for a bit to allow some of the juices to drain – Like you, I don’t like it too watery. But yeah, chopping some veggies & adding it at serving time certainly adds not only a great texture but a little more pop as well. Also if you’re wanting a little more heat don’t seed or core the peppers, just chop them up & mix them in – much of the heat is in the seeds! Good luck – let me know how it turns out. ~TxH~
We’ve been making lots of salsa with all the yummy tomatoes coming from the garden! I love it when we have yellow ones to mix in with the red ones. The salsa is so pretty! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
I did try making blender salsa! Well, food processor salsa since my blinder is junk. I used all fresh, no frozen tomatoes yet to use, anyway, we loved it! I just pulsed it until it was the right texture, thicker than canned salsa but way way thinner than what I normally make and it was super fast and easy. We will be doing it all the time now ! Thank you for the inspiration!
Excellent Emily – glad you liked it! ~TxH~
Why thank you Christina – I like to eat as naturally as possible – and there’s no more fun way to eat your veggies! Thanks for the invite, think I’ll ‘hop’ on over! ~TxH~
I love salsa, and I really like your recipe. I am more happy that you shared how to freeze your tomatoes! Great idea!
Thanks for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen party! I am always glad you share with me! I will be pinning this!
LOL Cynthia! I love to do home canning but veggie-garden canning takes place in the hottest part of the year. Here in NE Texas that also means heat & humidity – can’t stand to add even more to the living quarters. Freezing tomatoes is super easy and I love that the skins slide right off when they’re semi-thawed. Easy/Easy/Easy! ~TxH~
When I start getting loads of tomatoes I am going to try this. I am getting a few just not enough yet.
Thanks for the recipe! My tomatoes are overflowing from the garden so I can’t wait to try this.
It’s so easy to have on hand and so easy to whip up in a snap – give it a try, Jen. ~TxH~
Homemade salsa is the BEST and even better when it comes from your own garden produce! Thanks for the recipe for the salsa spice mix too. đŸ™‚
Candy – gotta agree with ya there! ~TxH~
I agree Candy! Homemade is best. ~TxH~